By Muhammed Korta
“Don’t cry, there would be a change in every settings of the country ranging from social, political and economic status to ensure there’s no weak or paralyzed body of the government and the society. The nightmares of citizens, the market prices and other miscellaneous malfunctioning would be regulated to make development easier for the benefit of the country as a whole “, said by the dribblers of hope or politicians when they were given their manifestos to win votes from electorate. The most common promise that is given and not fulfilled is the price regulation and engagement of youths in national development projects. After brilliant methods to manoeuvre doubts and became victorious, every promise got buried like a hatchet. However, what many tend to forget is that “a hunger free nation is an already developed nation”.
In the same vein, an empty bag can’t stand alone, which is interpreted to mean: with an empty stomach, nothing seems to be done appropriately by a man.
Metaphorically, a dog will forever reside in a home where it gets food satisfactorily even if it’s cursed to be useless and of no benefit to the owner because it doesn’t hear or care what the owner says. All it cares is to eat, maintain its weight and avoid being malnourished. Coming to the topic, there’s a lot of relationship among price control, engagement of citizens and development. For example, from the experience I accumulated from the trip organized by the author, Saffiyah Joof, to Bintang was from the speech of the Honourable Mamadi Kurang, when he narrated to us that during his stay in Malaysia, after he had seen and admired the well-developed cities and town, and when they asked, they were told the country was not well off then since it is as young as The Gambia as they were both independent from colonial rule in 1965. So, why is it more developed than The Gambia when they are both age mates, one may ask? The reason for its superiority over The Gambia is that it only used its youths in projects as its work force and shock the world that they can stand with limited resources, but what resource is better than able, ready and engaged youths? well, none is better. The youth are the most useful resources a nation can be gifted with but depending on the technical know-how of the leaders to engage them into becoming useful producers. As said, a hunger free nation is an already developed nation, legal procedures must be taken to abolish the implementation of prices anyhow as wish by vendors, business tycoons and other people like the shopkeepers among others. If you ask about price control in The Gambia, I don’t think we really have that. What makes it more interesting as well as sympathetic and sorrowful is the difference in the cost of the same products in different locations of the country, which shows the flexibility in the changing of prices by the sellers of the products without due approval from the concerned authorities. Chain a dog for days without food and later take it out for hunt and see if its capabilities will be highly shown. You might come home and want to kill, disown or put all blames on it, but what can a hungry creature do. Have you forgotten after God had created Adam, the only spot that Satan pointed out to be his Achilles’ hill is his stomach, so why dilly dally in making amend when prices of goods are accelerating each day we wake making every youth waking up angry and hungry, who then will be free when they come in a rage? A developed nation is never in the absence of youths and food. Ask America, China and Russia, from them you will get a right answer and I know after getting this answer, if you truly care about yourself standing before God when he would ask you about your tenure in office, you will implement price control and venture into agriculture. We have lands and we need the implementation of the slogan ” Grow what you eat and eat what you grow,” don’t we? Long live The Gambia and God save its people.
